Mediaboss Marketing

COMMENTARY

Plainclothes police are staking out the hideout, snipers lock on to their targets from the tops of surrounding buildings and a truckload of Swat team members are hiding nearby _ it's the quiet before the storm. Suspects all accounted for in the hideout, check. Certain evidence confirmed in the hideout, check. Communication lines secured, neighbourhood cleared, weapons locked and loaded, full metal jackets in place, check, check and check.

''Take them out! Go! Go! Go!'' The element of surprise is half the battle.

Ah, the goose-bumps I get when watching a police raid in a Hollywood movie. But when I learned I was to witness my first real-life Thai police raid on the morning of Feb 28, I wasn't that excited.

At 10.30am, the question came: ''What are you doing at the office, aren't you supposed to be at the raid?'' Answer: ''Bah, there's no hurry.'' At 11.30am another question: ''Shouldn't you have left already?'' Answer: ''Nah, I'll leave in an hour.''

At the scene, 1pm. Inside the compound of the Cabbages & Condoms restaurant, a man with a shaved head standing under the scorching sun, sweat oozing from his every pore. A pair of Ray-Bans covered his sad, mysterious eyes. His hands rested on his hips in a devil-may-care manner befitting a lone cowboy eyeing a group of pilgrims, who were even sweatier since they had been there for hours. The cowboy, who could have used a hat, sighed and with an exasperating twang said: ''Nothing happening yet, pilgrims?''

''No,'' one pilgrim replied.

A big crowd of reporters and cameramen have been waiting at the compound since early morning. The police are expected to raid the medical clinic on the second floor of the restaurant. The clinic _ which is not part of the restaurant _ is suspected of providing illegal abortions. A couple of police cars and a few policemen were waiting around. Some 45 minutes later, the commander and other bigwigs arrive. The raid is happening. They are ready to go. The bigwigs then march upstairs, followed by their police entourage as reporters and cameramen crowd after them. The members of the media were prevented from going up by the police. Foreign patrons of the restaurant looked on, bewildered.

More waiting. Some 30 minutes later the bigwigs come down. Camera lights flashing, microphones jabbing, questions spewing _ ''What did you find?'' ''What did you see?''

''We found nothing,'' says the commanding officer, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

Read this article:
Painting a picture

Long Island City, NY (PRWEB) March 10, 2012

Seobaba Company India, Seobaba have come up all the services that are chalked out under the Search Engine Marketing program. They use both creativity & technical innovation to launch a powerful marketing campaign for their clients. Their chief services include Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, Reputation Management service, SEO outsourcing, SEO consultancy, content writing, web designing and Custom Application Development.

Seobaba also proffers special services to meet your local business needs (under their Google Local Business program) and perform aggressive marketing to guarantee you a higher traffic, higher sales count and high Return on Investment. Their Top Ten Ranking visibility program has been designed to lend their clients webpage a very high exposure and endeavor to lift it to Googles 1-10 SERP. Besides these, they also promise higher revenue by performing the Pay Per Click program that gives long-lasting monetary benefits to their clients. Under their internet marketing services, they provide a number of other services for a potent & highly effective marketing.

The CEO points out, We have a strong work ethic in an environment steered by the top-notch computer experts, designers, developers, programmers and content writers. We are also equipped with the latest gadgets, software, tools & techniques which help us ably serve our clients to the best of our abilities. We can guarantee you a significant boost in sales, a noticeable improvement in your web traffic in a very short time, a sharp escalation in webpage & Google ranking, better convertibility ratio & higher ROI and brand-building for a secure & sustained future.

Throwing light on some of the powerful traffic-generating activities, he cited that depending on your customized requirement and individualistic business needs, they chalk out a comprehensive program that includes the appropriate social marketing, link building and content creation.

To generate traffic from various sources, they rely on their competent link builders & technicians. For pooling in traffic from social channels, they engage in widespread video promotion & status-building campaigns on social sites like Facebook, twitter, Digg, LinkdIn, YouTube, etc. Website URL: http://www.seobaba.com/

See the original post:
http://www.seobaba.com ): Cost-Effective Internet Marketing Solutions

BERKELEY, Calif.First Amendment advocates have accused Berkeley's police chief of intimidation and censorship after he sent an officer to a newspaper reporter's home in the middle of the night to insist on changes to a story.

Sgt. Mary Kusmiss knocked on Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley's door around 12:45 a.m. Friday on Chief Michael Meehan's orders, the Oakland Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/AlRYtG).

Meehan apparently thought Oakley misreported what he said during a public meeting about the police department's response in the case of a local resident who was beaten to death last month.

But Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher's Association, said if Meehan had a problem with the story, he should have called the newspaper the next day or written a letter to the editor.

"It's the most intimidating type of (censorship) possible because the person trying to exercise it carries a gun," he said.

Oakley said he was shaken by Kusmiss's visit to his Berkeley home. He and his wife thought that a relative may have died.

Meehan has since apologized, calling his actions "overzealous." He said he didn't think Oakley would be intimidated or upset since Kusmiss regularly deals with the media.

"I did not mean to upset (Oakley) or his family last night," Meehan told the Tribune. "It was late, (I was) tired too. I don't dispute that it could be perceived badly."

Oakley had covered a community meeting on Thursday about the beating death of 67-year-old Peter Cukor on Feb. 18. Cukor had called the department on its nonemergency line to report the suspect in his beating, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, about 15 minutes before his wife dialed 911 to report that DeWitt was attacking her husband. But police did not immediately respond to that first call.

Oakley wrote that Meehan apologized to the community at Thursday's meeting for the department's slow response. But Meehan said he apologized only for not informing the public sooner about why the response was slow.

Read more here:
Police chief sends officer to reporter's house

Syrias army is too large and too well equipped, and recent defections not nearly important enough to slow the growing crisis there, US intelligence experts told The Washington Post today.

Diplomatic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad is having little effect, the officials said, and the only hope for a quick resolution to the bloodshed is economic sanctions.

That leadership is going to fight very hard, one official said in The Post. The odds are against them, but they are going to fight very hard.

In the most comprehensive, telling comments since the Syrian uprising began a year ago, three senior US intelligence experts said those closest to Assad are remaining steadfast.

More from GlobalPost: Syria: Kofi Annan's call for talks rejected

The experts said the Syrian army has increased its attacks on civilian sites such as mosques, hospitals and schools to kill Free Syrian Army forces they believe are hiding there.

Restraint has been lifted, one official said, according to The Post.

CNN said recent defections from Assads government and military are having little effect, and there are reports Al Qaeda is complicating the situation by infiltrating opposition forces.

US experts dont know the extent of Al Qaedas presence, CNN said, and arent sure the terrorist organization is even welcomed in Syria.

Poor organization is hampering the uprising, the officials said, and poor communications make it difficult to mount a sustained attack.

See original here:
Assad regime in control, US intelligence says

By Michele Dargan

Daily News Staff Writer

Updated: 7:56p.m.Saturday,March10,2012

Posted: 5:52p.m.Saturday,March10,2012

When Renee Boger attended a seminar on social networking for churches two years ago, she came away with one clear message.

In todays culture, making our presence (known) online is do or die if we hope to grow beyond our church walls, said Boger, communications coordinator for The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea. Its come to a point now that if you dont have a presence online, no ones going to know about you. Youre competing for people. If youre just a building, its not good enough anymore.

But having a website is now the bare minimum for any house of worship.

Island churches and synagogues are using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Meetup.com to interact with congregants and draw new people to their house of worship.

Boger said her job has changed dramatically from when she started designing and putting out the church newsletter six years ago. The Sunday leaflet, weekly Bethesda Happenings and the monthly Bethesda Bulletin are distributed electronically and on Bethesdas website.

My job has taken on this other side of social networking, with a good portion of my time spent updating our website, Facebook and Twitter, Boger said.

Read the original post:
Houses of worship tap social media to help build congregations, faith